Work-from-home was still considered an occasional favor your boss granted once in a blue moon. But then the pandemic struck and suddenly, offices emptied overnight, and millions realized they could do their jobs just as well, if not better, from their kitchen table. The numbers back this up. Prior to COVID, no more than 4% of jobs in the US were remote. Today that figure has surpassed 15%, with more than 35 million Americans now working remotely at least part of the week. Zoom too went from 10 million daily active users pre-pandemic to 300 million daily active users.
Convenience isn't the only factor here. According to surveys, the majority of remote workers are happier, primarily because they have more leisure time between work and life and can finally enjoy the extra hours they previously spent commuting. That is where the concept of work-life balance truly gained traction.
And there came the digital nomads, the new community which went a step further in remote work by taking their laptops and the entire world as their workplace. It was estimated that there are more than 40 million digital nomads around the world, more than twice the number of people who were into remote work before the pandemic. And the way they work impacts the way they are doing marketing. Seldom is a marketer, designer, and approver online at the same time to launch a campaign when the team is dispersed over twelve time zones. Here come the AI-powered digital marketing services taking care of the tedious tasks, such as creating copy variations and identifying underperforming advertisements, so a dispersed team can continue working without everyone logging on at once.
So which companies actually walk the talk? The following companies, in our humble opinion truly live up to the hype, along with information on compensation, benefits, and potential for growth.
1. GitLab
➔ Pay: $100,000 to $220,000 for engineering positions
➔ Perks: Paid time off taken in one block, growth budget, paid parental leave
➔ Growth: Public salary ranges make it easy to assess promotion potential
2. Automattic
Since 2005, there has been no central office, and teams from almost 100 countries write internal blogs rather than emails.
➔ Pay: $90,000 to $200,000 regardless of location
➔ Perks: open vacation, home office allowance, sabbatical every five years
➔ Growth: Longevity is common with career counseling included
3. Zapier
Bootstrapped and fully remote, Zapier connects thousands of apps for automated workflows in 40 countries, a real answer for how to scale your marketing with AI for business growth, using its own automation to fuel growth.
➔ Pay: competitive, bootstrapped payroll, no VC pressure to cut costs
➔ Perks: a de-furnishing bonus for home office setup, fully async schedules
➔ Growth: a clear roadmap from supporting positions to engineering and product development jobs
4. Toptal
The self-proclaimed largest fully remote company, Toptal has an elite freelance network, accepting only a small percentage of applicants each year.
➔ Pay: $80,000 to $180,000
➔ Perks: flexible paid time off, a Calm app subscription, regular community events
➔ Growth: being hired here will look good on your CV and open doors to clients in the future
5. Doist
The creators of Twist and Todoist, which are based solely on asynchronous communication across numerous time zones.
➔ Pay: $80,000 to $160,000
➔ Perks: 40 days of paid time off, profit sharing, conference budgets, covered coworking space
➔ Growth: small team, so people wear many hats and pick up new skills on the go
6. Buffer
Renowned for its radical transparency, Buffer publishes salaries publicly and has hosted team retreats since 2013.
➔ Pay: publicly available salary structure, no surprises when it comes to raises
➔ Perks: annual company retreats, equity transparency
➔ Growth: internal transfers let people transition from support into marketing or product
7. Hubstaff
Fully remote since 2012, Hubstaff now works with tens of thousands of companies running their own remote teams.
➔ Pay: market-rate, tied to role and experience
➔ Perks: an annual retreat, 25 days of paid time off, a yearly equipment stipend
➔ Growth: regular internal promotions, specifically in product and customer success
8. Toggl
Operates its business in exactly the same way as it offers services to its customers: remote and globally distributed.
➔ Pay: competitive within the SaaS market
➔ Perks: expensed team meetups, a monthly wellness budget, a home office stipend
➔ Growth: three products under one company makes it easy to switch sideways to a different team
9. DuckDuckGo
Never have a central office, all this while creating one of the most well-known privacy-first substitutes for traditional search.
➔ Pay: independent of location, doesn't decrease by zip code
➔ Perks: a $1,250 annual professional development budget, home office reimbursement
➔ Growth: small team, therefore opportunities for growth means more responsibilities, not necessarily promotion
10. Basecamp
An early and vocal proponent of remote culture that continues to influence the way the industry discusses distributed work.
➔ Pay: $95,000 to $190,000
➔ Perks: profit sharing, a paid sabbatical every three years, wellness stipends, a shortened 32-hour summer workweek
➔ Growth: small team, so people take on more duties early on
Final Thoughts
All things considered, what links these ten firms is not merely luck. It is the presence of good systems, transparent compensation, tangible perks, and the sincere commitment to hiring people because of their skills and not where they live.
These businesses are a good place to start if you're interested in working remotely or simply want evidence that real work and real growth can occur outside of an office.
